Today's Opinions

Folks, let’s review this promise the Republican Party made to the voters of Roane County.
Their promise would make the government more efficient and reduce the cost of state government.
Their first act was to attack teachers and remove their right to negotiate their wages and working conditions.
We do not need to go back to the old method of replacing teachers because they voted differently than the education superintendent or county executive.
We need to keep the system of advancement by tenure or otherwise experience.

I agree with District Attorney General Russell Johnson — partly.
He suggests that former General Sessions Judge Thomas Austin might, over time, repair the reputation of the justice system which he, Austin, is responsible for damaging.
The operative word here is “might.”
I believe it is too late for such a miracle to ever occur in Roane County.
Fifteen years ago, when I retired to this area I heard rumors from many sources of a rogue judge who was far less than upright.

As a new family of six to Harriman, I thought I would share a few words with you about the community.
Moving to a new community can be stressful, especially for children.
We had been here a week when we noticed the streets downtown being blocked off.
Curious, we went to see what was going on. It was a car show with games and prizes for children and adults.
And everyone treated us with a welcoming hospitality. The longer we lived here, the more we felt the sense of community.

By CHARLES C. HAYNES
First Amendment Center
More than 2 billion people across the globe have Internet access and there are some 5 billion mobile-phone subscriptions, according to the 2010 Human Rights Report released this month by the U.S. Department of State.

I have written about my hiking lately. Not counting dog walks and casual rambling, I logged 18 miles on the trail in one seven-day period recently.
But I believe in diversification, which is why I’m getting my two bicycles ready for riding soon.
I’ve been an avid cyclist since I learned to ride on my older sister’s navy-blue bicycle at age 5. I never was able to ride using training wheels, not with the classic parental hand steadying the seat.

As we predicted last week, we continue to be inundated with statements, almost sermons, about the national debt and how some of our right-wing wise guys are going to pay off the debt. To this you, learned reader, may well express some doubt — a sort of ‘I’ll believe it when I see it” type attitude — and your doubt is well justified, as we will now demonstrate:

Well, here we go again about Tiger Haven. What does it take? There
have been no problems with the people who run the facility. The TWRA
monitors the place, and evidently they have found nothing wrong with the way they have taken care of the big cats.
I live close to the facility and have not had any problems whatsoever. Would you want to walk around with a location collar around your neck? I think not, and probably the cats would not, either.

Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan was speaking out, expressing his concern for the safety of students, faculty and staff on college campuses if a bill being discussed in the legislature to allow guns on public campuses is passed.
Morgan has joined the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, University of Tennessee President Joe DiPietro, and numerous other presidents, faculty, staff and students of Tennessee’s public higher education institutions in opposing the bills.